The possibility of Boise State running the table in a season likely to welcome chaos among the Power Five is intriguing. What would the Broncos have to do to curry enough favor to steal a College Football Playoff bid?

Speaking of disrupting the Playoff picture, Minnesota has an opportunity to just that on opening night. The Golden Gophers host Big 12 Conference champion favorite TCU in what is one of the low-key most intriguing games of the early season.

Minnesota factoring into the national landscape again — as it did last year as a surprise, Top 25 team — is a testament to Jerry Kill’s quick turnaround of the once downtrodden program.

Joe Christensen analyzes Kill’s history of turning around football programs. It’s an impressive list that goes beyond his tenure at Northern Illinois. Kill laid the foundation in DeKalb for the Huskies to have Mid-American Conference championships, Orange Bowl bids and Heisman finalists.

Considering all he did at that MAC school, and elsewhere, the sky is the limit for Kill at a Big Ten program — even one that has struggled as mightily in recent history as Minnesota has.

The first game of the college football season proved how quickly the best laid plans can go awry. Four-time defending FCS national champion North Dakota State lost at Montana, 38-35, starting the Bison’s drive for five on a detour.

With a typically effective run game, North Dakota State took advantage in the first half. Dual-threat quarterback Carson Wentz was terrific, particularly via the run.

Wentz suffered an injury in the second half that didn’t knock him from the game, but, as Jeff Kolpack writes, North Dakota State head coach Chris Klieman notes it was enough to limit what the Bison could offensively.

“It’s not an excuse but Carson wasn’t 100 percent, and that took away some of our quarterback run game because that was so successful in the first half. He couldn’t get the edge so we had to stay inside but once again I thought they did some really good things with adjustments.”

As for Wentz, he’s already looking forward — after giving props to the Griz.

What a game. S/O to Montana–they played a heck of a football game. Just a little adversity for the Bison. Time to get back to work.